2023
A few months ago this
The second of the indicators contemplated in the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan to evaluate the medium-term evolution of voluntary compliance with tax obligations is aimed at measuring the effects that are observed in said compliance induced by the actions of the Tax Agency.
After extensive processing, on December 6, 2023, Royal Decree 1007/2023, of December 5, was published in the BOE, approving the Regulation that establishes the requirements that must be adopted by computer or electronic systems and programs that support the billing processes of entrepreneurs and professionals, and the standardization of billing record formats.
The main strategic objective of the Tax Agency is to improve voluntary compliance with tax obligations. To achieve this objective, it implements a wide range of measures including civic-tax education, the provision of information and assistance, the prevention of tax and customs fraud, post-clearance control actions, the promotion of anti-fraud regulatory changes, collaboration with other agencies and the promotion of cooperative relations, among others.
Coordination between the State and the Regional Treasuries is established in the general principles of coordination and collaboration contained, respectively, in articles 5 and 4 of the Convention and the Economic Agreement.
Last Tuesday, November 14, the statistic Labor Market and Pensions in Tax Sources corresponding to the year 2022 was published. This statistic exploits the information on salaries and pensions contained in declaration model 190 of withholdings on income from work and economic activities, which must be presented by all entities that pay, among others, these incomes. The annual declaration basically consists of a list of people with the income they receive, the withholdings made and the personal characteristics necessary for calculating these withholdings. All this information provides a single source for studying employment and, in particular, wages in the territory with a common tax regime.
The precautionary measures within the inspection procedure, as provided in article 146 of Law 58/2003, General Tax, of December 17 (hereinafter LGT), are intended to prevent the disappearance, destruction or alteration of the decisive evidence of the existence or compliance of tax obligations or that their existence or display is subsequently denied, said measures having to meet a series of conditions. It is established that:
On Wednesday, 5 April, Royal Decree 249/2023, which amends the General Regulations on tax management and inspection activities and procedures and on the implementation of the common rules for tax application procedures, was published in the Official State Gazette.
The protection of whistleblowers constitutes a new and innovative regulation in our legal system at the state level, establishing a regime that stands out and differs from the various reporting regimes previously established.
In recent weeks, some of the statistics that awaken the most interest among the media and, in general, the users of the Tax Agency's statistics have been published. These are the Statistics of payers of Personal Income Tax by municipality and the Statistics of payers of Personal Income Tax by main municipalities by postcode. Both are part of the universe of statistical products obtained from the information provided by the Personal Income Tax returns (hereinafter, "IRPF").
The exchange of tax information with third countries is a necessary tool to combat tax fraud and is regulated by a variety of international multilateral and bilateral agreements.
The Central Coordination Unit for Crimes Against the Public Treasury (UCCDHP), which reports directly to the Director of the Department, is part of the organisation chart of the Financial and Tax Inspection Department of the State Tax Administration Agency.
Recently, the second section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS) has issued the judgments of July 25 (rec. 5234/2021) and July 26 (rec. 8620/2021) which further explores the principles of proportionality and legality regarding the establishment and modification of tax infringements and penalties and the principle of direct primacy of European Union law.
On Monday, 11 September, the Monthly Tax Collection Reports corresponding to July was published. This month's data is relevant because it is one of the highest collections in the year (the second after October). In July, in addition to the monthly returns, the returns of SMEs for the second quarter and the first payment of the PIT payable are presented. Together with the report and the habitual series of income, the file of accrued taxes, rates and tax bases is also published in these months with quarterly returns (Tax Agency: Monthly Tax Collection Reports). This allows analysing the collections in further depth.
Law 13/2023, of May 24, which modifies Law 58/2003, of December 17, General Tax, in transposition of Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 of March 22, 2021, which modifies Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation, and other tax regulations, establishes in its Final Provision 5 a new wording of the deductibility limitation rule of financial expenses contained in article 16 of Law 27/2014, of November 27, on Corporate Tax (hereinafter LIS ).
Law 13/2023, of May 24, modifies Law 58/2003, of December 17, General Tax (LGT), in several aspects, including incorporating a new Additional Provision 25 in the LGT (hereinafter DA 25 of the LGT ). This provision aims to establish a new obligation of information and due diligence relating to the informative tax return of platform operators obliged in the field of mutual assistance, for those matters that require regulation by law with a legal rank.
On May 25, Law 13/2023 (Provision 12204 of BOE No. 124 of 2023) was published in BOE , which modifies the General Tax Law to transpose the EU Directive 2021/514 amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation, establishing the seventh version of the same (better known as DAC7).
The Business Margins Observatory has recently been published. This is a joint project promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, the Bank of Spain and the State Tax Administration Agency.
The special procedure for micro-enterprises was one of the main novelties of Law 16/2022, of September 5, reforming the consolidated text of the Bankruptcy Law, with the aim of seeking maximum procedural simplification and cost reduction in the processing of a bankruptcy procedure.
The second chance or exoneration of unsatisfied liabilities is a possibility contemplated in the bankruptcy regulations so that natural persons, whether or not they are business owners, can benefit from a reduction in the amount of their debts, provided that they meet the established requirements and under the stipulated conditions.
Law 16/2022, of September 5, reforming the consolidated text of the Bankruptcy Law, has established, in its Eighth Additional Provision, the regulation of the specialty that entails the affectation of the different bankruptcy and pre-bankruptcy mechanisms to credits with guarantees from the Official Credit Institute ( ICO ) granted by virtue of Royal Decree-Laws 8/2020, of March 17, on extraordinary urgent measures to face the economic and social impact of COVID-19, 25/2020, of July 3, on urgent measures to support economic reactivation and employment, and 6/2022, of March 29, by which urgent measures are adopted within the framework of the National Response Plan to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine.
At the beginning of June, two months into the 2022 Personal Income Tax ( IRPF ) declaration campaign, more than 7.8 million taxpayers had already received their IRPF refunds, which meant that at that time more than 77% of the applications submitted (10.1 million) and almost 69% of the amounts requested (about 5.4 billion of the more than 7,800 requested) had been paid.
Law 13/2023, of May 24, has modified Law 58/2003, of December 17, General Tax Law, in various aspects, for example in enabling the regulations of each tax to contemplate a new way of rectifying errors that the citizen may have made when filing a self-assessment. This is the figure of the corrective self-assessment.
Law 13/2023, of May 24, has modified article 93 of the LGT, adding a new letter e) in section 1, and article 95 of the LGT, adding a new letter n) in section 1.
Law 13/2023, of May 24, has been published, which modifies Law 58/2003, of December 17, General Tax, in transposition of Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 of March 22 of 2021, which modifies Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation, and other tax regulations.
Filing an income tax return is the main action that many citizens must take to comply with their tax obligations. The Tax Agency, aware of this, plans an Income Tax Campaign every year in which the taxpayer is the centre of attention and, therefore, sets itself the primary objective of facilitating compliance with this obligation as much as possible, providing personalized assistance to those who request it, and by whatever means they request it (telephone or in person), and, on the other hand, making available to taxpayers who wish to do so the tools that allow them to complete the declaration themselves. This purpose, and no other, is what has always driven the constant improvement of the assistance systems for the preparation of the Income Tax return, which has meant adopting measures aimed, on the one hand, at facilitating the completion of the return and, on the other, at speeding up the processing of the millions of returns that are submitted each year (already more than 22 million), and thus being able to make the refunds as quickly as possible.
Tax information has become a fundamental element in understanding the economic reality of the country. The case of current information is no exception. In this sense, the daily sales obtained from the Immediate Information Supply (SII) system of the VAT stand out. Some 65,000 companies are covered by this system, a small number compared to other indicators, also from the Tax Agency, such as, for example, sales of Large Companies and corporate SMEs, which provide information on more than one million companies. However, sales from SII account for more than two-thirds of the turnover of the total number of VAT reporting companies and, above all, the information is available in real time, so the indicator The resulting one is the most closely linked to the recent evolution of the activity.
The Tax Agency has developed a communication strategy to reach citizens using various media, including its electronic headquarters and social networks. Among these, its YouTube channel stands out as a way to provide clear and accessible information on tax issues. The official YouTube channel of the Tax Agency was created in February 2008 and currently has almost 300 videos published. It is important to note that since the Agency changed its website in July 2021, some videos that were no longer relevant to the new website were removed.
In our legal system, tax credit enjoys special protection that is based, in essence, on the ultimate purpose for which the income obtained by the State is allocated: to serve the general interests and maintain the welfare state. One of the manifestations of such protection is the need to guarantee full payment of the amount due, by granting legally admissible guarantees that must be sufficient both legally and economically, when natural and legal persons, in the legitimate exercise of their rights, choose to defer payment of the amounts due, or choose to file as many appeals and claims as the law makes available to them, in defense of their interests.
Last December, the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration posted on its website the mid-term evaluation of the effects of Law 11/2021, on measures to prevent and combat tax fraud, which had entered into force, in general, on July 11, 2021. This assessment responds to the fulfillment of milestone 377 of the first reform of component 27 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). Spain's international commitment, in relation to component 27, the fight against tax fraud, not only consisted of approving a law against tax fraud, law 11/2021, but also of carrying out two evaluations, an interim one in the last quarter of 2022, and a final one, committed for the end of 2023.
The 2023 Addendum to the Strategic Plan of the Tax Agency has recently been approved, thus fulfilling the commitment included in Component 27 of the National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, dedicated to the prevention and fight against fraud, according to which the Tax Agency must annually adapt its strategic planning to a very changing reality: evolution of economic activity, new tax regulations, changes in taxpayer behaviour, new sources of information available, technological developments, new projects, adaptation of existing ones, etc.
Since April 11, the Tax Agency has made available all the support services to consult the draft, modify it and, if applicable, file your Personal Income Tax (IRPF) return for 2022. Once again this year, the Tax Agency has adopted a set of measures aimed at consolidating and improving the model of assistance to taxpayers in the fulfilment of their tax obligations, with the idea of achieving one of the essential objectives pursued by the organisation, which takes on special relevance on the dates scheduled for the presentation of the 2022 Income Tax return.
One of the actions to be carried out by the Tax Agency in order to prevent and combat tax and customs fraud refers to the collaboration between the Tax Agency and the tax administrations of the Autonomous Communities. The general guidelines of the Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan detail the actions to be carried out by the organization in the 2023 financial year in line with the provisions of the Strategic Plan and its addenda.
The general guidelines of the Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan detail the actions to be carried out by the organization in the 2023 financial year, in line with the provisions of the Strategic Plan and its addenda. The fourth of the basic principles of the Tax Agency's actions in preventing and combating tax and customs fraud, set out in the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, refers to fraud control during the tax collection phase.
One of the backbone of the Tax Agency's actions in preventing tax and customs fraud, set out in the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, refers to the investigation and verification of tax and customs fraud.
The general guidelines of the Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan for 2023, when establishing the priority actions to be carried out by the organization in the current fiscal year 2023, are built on five pillars. The first of these, as we explained to you last week, refers to information and assistance; the second is dedicated to actions aimed at preventing non-compliance, which are developed by a dual path, which includes the promotion of voluntary compliance and the prevention of fraud.
Since its creation, the Tax Agency has established the prevention and fight against tax fraud as fundamental and permanent strategic objectives.
The Tax Agency's Strategic Plan 2020-2023 dedicates its Chapter V to the Ethical Infrastructure and Governance, in which a series of commitments are articulated that help the Tax Agency to continue acting with the utmost respect for a set of articulated ethical values and principles, whose observance goes beyond the legal protection offered by the set of administrative regulations that govern the situation and relationship between the Tax Administration, citizens and personnel in the service of the public service.
At the end of 2022, OECD celebrated "Legal Certainty Day", which presented 2021 Mutual Agreement Procedures statistics for 127 jurisdictions around the world and awarded awards to different States for their management of international tax controversies.
Article 31.1 of the Spanish Constitution: "Everyone will contribute to the maintenance of public expenditures according to their economic capacity through a fair tax system inspired by the principles of equality and progressivity that, in no case, will have a confiscatory scope."
Law 16/2022, of September 5, reforming the consolidated text of the Bankruptcy Law, has meant, among other relevant developments, an important modification of the national preventive restructuring frameworks, as a consequence of the transposition of the Directive (EU ) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on frameworks for preventive restructuring, debt relief and disqualifications, and on measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and debt relief procedures, and amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects of company law (Restructuring and Insolvency Directive).
Although the tax collection regulations establish different places for payments of debts collected by the State Tax Administration, these payments are made, in their entirety, through credit institutions authorized to act as collaborators.
In 2021, the National Seizure Team, the National Alienation Team and the National Auction Board of the Tax Collection Department were created with jurisdiction throughout the national territory.
In its mission to inform and assist citizens in fulfilling their tax obligations, the Tax Agency has the Tax Management Department. The development of information and assistance tasks involves the exercise of many and varied functions. To this end, the Tax Management Department has a vast organization. Today we introduce you to the National Tax Management Office, the Informative Declarations Area and the Central Information and Digital Assistance Unit.
The Group Coordination Unit, which reports directly to the Director of the Department, is integrated into the organizational chart of the Financial and Tax Inspection Department of the Tax Agency.
The Tax Agency has a basic function for the correct functioning of public services in the broadest sense of the word. The importance of the objectives assigned to it requires that the Tax Agency have a dynamic character in its organization and operation.
Public organizations have the power, almost the obligation, to self-organize in order to provide the public service they are entrusted with in the most efficient way possible.